Thursday, April 18, 2013

Central Texan Fertilizer Plant Explosion Leaves 160 Wounded, Death Toll Undetermined

Located in a small central Texan town, West, a Fertilizer plant blew up, destroying many neighboring homes and potentially killing many. Perhaps the saddest part of the tragedy was that many of those who are thought dead were volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers who have "remained missing" many hours after the blast. The blast was immensely powerful as one eyewitness account reported that the "ground shook as a ball of fire shot into the sky." Wendy Maler, thirty-seven years old, claimed that "her home was wrecked," as the "windows were blown out, the drywall crumbled, and the doors caved in."

There is no answer to the question regarding what exactly ignited the grand blast of the fertilizer facility. Although there is "no indication of criminal activity," Sgt. Patrick Swanton, a police spokesperson, said that they "will investigate it as a crime scene." Currently, investigations are still being conducted, with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives leading the process. It does all seem that the happening was accidental, as the EPA “found a number of deficiencies,” with the plant's facilities, ability to address hazards, and quality of employee training.


As of now, the community is still trying to recover from the impact of this devastating tragedy. The death toll still remains unfixed at any number, but is focused around five to fifteen. President Obama offered the community any federal resources required to deal with the aftermath of the explosion. The town is closely knit, and, according to many residents, recover as time goes on. 


Do you think there's any possibility of this blast being relating to terror? If so, why target such a remote facility?   In comparison to other events such as the Boston bombing, how does this event compare in terms of potential for terror and general devastation? 


More can be read here.

4 comments:

Savanna Kiefer said...

The country has been on edge since the Boston bombing. This just adds to the fear and anxiety in the population. Though there is a chance that this is related to terror, I think this explosion is most likely because of the lack of regulation in the Fertilizer Plant. There are plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong when there are chemicals and other substances involved. I don't believe a terrorist would target a small town in Texas. This happening just a few days after the bombings at the Boston Marathon just causes even more fear. Violence can happen anywhere. Hopefully the cause of both of these explosions will be discovered soon. This will pacify some of the terror in the population and make people feel safer.

Unknown said...

I agree with Savanna - it's highly unlikely that the fertilizer plant explosion is related to terror. To be fair, the Boston Marathon bombs haven't been connected to any terrorist networks yet, although I can't think of any other reasonable motives for the bombing. If anything it's more likely that the ricin letters sent to Washington are somehow related to the bombings, and even that connection is shaky at best.

Unknown said...

There is no way a fertilizer plant has something to do with terrorism. Fertilizer is actually quite explosive and if not treated with respect can blow up. Just like Garret and Savanna said, people are on the edge about any sort of violence. It seems that all we hear on the news these days are explosions and gun violence. I also believe psychologically people are predisposed into thinking of explosions of being violent because of North Korea's bomb threats. However, this probably was just a sad event where people did care about a very explosive item well enough. I mean what kind of gain is there to blow up a small middle of no where town in Texas. It's like how if a bomb went off in Foster City, that is nothing compared to bomb in Boston, SF or even San Jose.

Unknown said...

It's been a really terrible week really. The Boston bombings, Texan Fertilizer Plant Explosion, MIT shooting, harmful letters, not to mention the Saratoga suicide that happened this month. It's really disheartening seeing so much turmoil and unrest suddenly rear its ugly head in this country. Is this a sign? Is it because of social media? Either way, it would not be unreasonable to assume this all could be related to terrorist activity, though no solid evidence has appeared yet. But as Ian Fleming once said, "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action."

Going with what everyone else is saying, I sincerely doubt this plant explosion was related to any criminal activity and certainly no one has come up to claim any responsibility, at least as far as I know. Of course, this is still rather depressing since more people are joining the increasing death toll this week. This is probably the most violent week I've ever seen as of yet.

It seems that the plant had some structural or other issues that led to the explosion. Well, at least this can be fixed by better training and procedure. The violence going on right now is, on the other hand, much more difficult to manage. I truly hope everything turns out better soon. President Obama has my sympathies due to all the tragedy he has to handle, adding on to his disappointment regarding the gun control regulations.